Firm History

2009

Entrepreneurs

Wang Yunming, President of Tsinghua Internet Association, and James Tan, President of the VC & PE Club co-founded 55tuan. Lin Pingping and Jin Ming, both Tsinghua PhD candidates in computer science, and Liu Chuanjun, a rocket scientist from Chinese Academy of Sciences, joined.

2010

Replicability and scalability

Having raised its first venture capital round after multiple rejections from venture capital firms, 55tuan begins a rapid expansion across Mainland China that eventually totaled 5,000 employees across 200 cities.

2011

Voice of entrepreneurs

James Tan joins the board of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, joining other illustrious Singaporean entrepreneurs such as Richard Eu of Eu Yan Sang, Ong Peng Tsin of Interwoven, and Inderjit Singh of UTAC in this public-private board for entrepreneurship advocacy.

2011

Quest Ventures founded

James Tan and Wang Yunming decide to start QuestVC to drive angel investments and M&A activities for their corporate interests.

2012

iJAM Accelerator

The Media Development Authority of Singapore, a statutory agency of the Ministry of Communications and Information in Singapore, appoints QuestVC as an iJAM partner. It was the first time in iJAM history that an overseas-based firm was appointed, heralding in a wave of foreign incubators to set up in Singapore.

2013

First investments made

James Tan wrote the first cheques for future unicorns and gamechangers such as Carousell, 99.co, ShopBack, Carro, Xfers, and many others, ignited the Web 2.0 era in Southeast Asia, and became the most sought after angel investor.

2014

DBS Bank BusinessClass

QuestVC joins the advisory panel of DBS BusinessClass to help SMEs and startups grow their business and network across Asia.

2016

Co-investment with government of Malaysia

Cradle Fund, a statutory agency under the Ministry of Finance of Malaysia, appoints QuestVC as a co-investment partner.

2017

• A focus on Southeast Asia James Tan returns to Singapore from Beijing where he has spent the last decade, and begins building QuestVC in earnest. First step, a rebrand of QuestVC to Quest Ventures.
• Startup Singapore Quest Enterprise Singapore, a statutory agency under the Ministry of Trade & Industry of Singapore, appoints Quest Ventures for seed investments.